Habitat - Indoor :: Water won't stay clear!!

[blulite]

Boiling does nothing to remove dissolved solids. If anything it would make them worse, as some of the water would evaporate during the boiling process and the minerals, salts, and chemicals would still be present. The amount of crud wouldn't change but the volume of water would be less so technically the crud would be at a higher concentration and you would have made your water worse.

really??? i never knew that, i always thought that cooled boiled water was pretty clean. oh well, never mind, thats 2 new things ive learned today.

[VeipaCray]

Distilled water is usually done through steam distillation. The water is boiled, the steam that evaporates off is pure water free of any other chemical compounds and minerals. then the steam is collected and cooled. When cooled, the steam turns back to water and that is distilled water. What's left behind from the initial boiling is all the crud, minerals,and chemicals.

A side note: sometimes when you buy "distilled water" at your local supermarket, it's really RO water. The container will usually say steam distilled or RO process. RO achieves the same end result but uses less energy in the process. RO water is made by forcing water through a membrane that's made of molecular sized pores. The crud doesn't pass through and is flushed off the membrane down a waste line. What does pass through is almost pure water.

If there's any living bacteria or critters in the water, boiling the water and cooling would kill them and make the water safe to drink. Perhaps this is what you were thinking of. Cheers!

[blulite]

neverheard of the RO process, i already knew about the distillation process, i done a lot of research into home brewing.

thanks for the info though, i think my thought stemmed from de-ironised water, im not sure why. i think i was just confused.

[VeipaCray]

PM me if you ever want to talk about home brewing. I'm polishing some keggles this weekend, hoping to brew again on Monday.

See this thread...
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=28344

[blulite]

@VeipaCray, ROFPMSLMAO @ your **MUST SEE** link........

[VeipaCray]

And that's how the game is played

[Miss Tee]

I studied this thread--stopped cleaning my tank every week (since the water was cloudy, but NOT dirty)--rinsed my filters only in tank water that I took out...and waited for 6 days...SUCCESS!!!!!

[blulite]

congrats, you see the problem you had was cleaning it every week. with new water comes new floods of algee.

gald you got it sorted.

[Niksan878]

Hello everybody!

Nice thread, I've been reading it and trying to figure out what's wrong with my aquarium...

So just to be clear what I need to do is: have a filter (in my case a DIY canister) with SPONGE, CARBON and BIO MEDIA (like ceramic rings, somewhere where the "good bacteria" needs to grow)? Please correct me if I'm wrong? Also the more the bio media, the better right?

Thanks!

[VeipaCray]

Hello everybody!

Nice thread, I've been reading it and trying to figure out what's wrong with my aquarium...

So just to be clear what I need to do is: have a filter (in my case a DIY canister) with SPONGE, CARBON and BIO MEDIA (like ceramic rings, somewhere where the "good bacteria" needs to grow)? Please correct me if I'm wrong? Also the more the bio media, the better right?

Thanks!

Could you describe your problem a bit to us?

In general yes... a good canister with adequate mechanical (sponge), chemical (carbon or better yet purigen), and biological filtration (bio media provides added surface area for nitrifying bacteria to colonize). You also need a pretty good flow rate from your canister. You want to be turning your entire tank volume over about 5x an hour. So for example a 100 gallon tank needs a pump that will AT LEAST do 500 gallons per hour at head.

You really cannot have too much bio filtration. Well you can, but the only thing it will hurt is your wallet. Nitrifying bacteria will colonize and reproduce to match their food source, ammonia. As the ammonia spikes so does the amount of bacteria (your bio filtration). As levels decrease the bacteria follows right along. So technically it is possible to get a HUUUUGE filter and fill it with tons and tons of bio media. Having too much bio media won't harm your tank, but it might not all be useful if there isn't enough food source to sustain a bacteria colony that large.

For a turtle setup, most canisters have a set amount of mechanial or sponge filtration. Purigen or Carbon have ratings... ie 100mL will handle 100 gallons or whatever. Use that amount. Fill the rest of your canister up with bio media if you can afford to.

[Niksan878]

Hi VeipaCray,

Well my aquarium is around 190 litres... And it gets cloudy and smelly after the 1st week or so...So I decided to make my own canister filter. I was thinking of buying EHEIM 1000 pump (which pumps around 1000litres/hour) the only thing I wasn't sure is the amount of each filter to add? I'm planning on using a PVC pipe for the body of the filter.. there are plenty threads on DIY canister filters so I think I will be able to do it... at the end I should save some money and enjoy the process of DIY!:)

[VeipaCray]

The rule of thumb for a turtle is 3x the filtration. So a filter rated for 100 litres is rated for the bioload of a community fish tank with 100 litres of water. For a turtle, that same filter will only handle about 33 litres.

For you, let's call your 190 litres 200 for easy math. You're going to need to size your canister to handle about 600 litres.

As for your pump, head loss is important. A pump rated for 1000 litres per hour is 1000 liters with 0" of head. If your canister is 2 meters below your tank, the amount of water it pushes out after fighting gravity for 2 meters is less than 1000. Size your pump accordingly.

I DIY a lot of things, but not the canister. I totally get the want/need/satisfaction of DIY. For me for the canister, I like having a retail canister with a warranty. Also, if you are leaning towards DIY because of $$, I can show you a few knock off canisters that are surprisingly good that are about equal $$ to DIY.

[Niksan878]

well it depends.. the only option for me might be to purchase online .. because in my country a canister filter made for 300 litter aquarium (for fish thought) costs around 150 euros.. so the $$ is another reason for me to make my own canister.. but the main reason is the satisfaction of DIY and the option of putting more filter media (biomedia)...

I am actually planning on doing a "closed system" - the canister won't have any air in it so the pump will be just moving the water around... this way the gravity won't have such an impact right?

[VeipaCray]

Typically a closed system refers to a closed loop, and technically ALL canister systems are closed loops unless you T off the plumbing and run it to something else.

Anytime you have to move water vertically, head comes into play because there's always gravity. The air doesn't really matter, it's the weight of the water caused by gravity in a vertical that the pump has to fight to push water.

Out of curiousity, what country are you from? And welcome to the forum.

There is this filter that's really cheap, does a fairly good job, and holds a lot of media. Not sure with shipping and currency conversion what it would cost you but I'll post the link anyway.
http://www.aquatraders.com/Odyssea-CFS4-Canister-Filter-p/42044.htm

[Niksan878]

I'm from Sofia (Bulgaria)

I tryied opening your link but I can't....

So how do you calculate the gravity impact on the water flow? For example if I have my canister/pump 60cm below the aquarium, how much of the l per h would be reduced?

Thanks!